314 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
ing. Hedid not merely tarnish his reputation, but he earned 
for himself eternal infamy, and the scorn and contempt of good 
men in all future times, by a royal order under which the entire 
native population of the Bahamas were conveyed to Hispaniola, 
and forced tolabor in its mines. The removal was brought about 
by the grossest fraud. The ‘‘children of the sun” promised to 
take them to those Elysian isles where they could enjoy the society 
of their dead ancestors, and revel with them in supreme and never 
ending delights. Subjected to tasks to which they were unaccus- 
tomed, and for which they were unfitted, disappointed and broken 
hearted, it did not require many years for death to do for them 
all that the Spaniards had promised; 
~ ‘“‘The whole race sank beneath the oppressor’s rod, 
And left a blank among the works of God.” 
The ‘‘ heavenly men” proved to be greater demons than any 
those unfortunate islanders had ever, by prayer and sacrifice, 
endeavored to appease and conciliate. 
For-a time the Bahamas were without human inhabitants; 
“ Still nature spread her fruitful sweetness round, 
Breathed on the air, and brooded on the ground.” 
The fairy isles lost nothing of their charming loveliness; the 
soft, perfumed, and medicated air retained all its healing and 
attractive qualities; while the ocean kissed with its crested waves _ 
the white beaches and honey-combed shores, and ceaselessly 
uttered its regretful murmurs. 
Capt. William Sayle, an English navigator, entered the harbor 
of Nassau in the year 1607, and gave to the island of New Provi- 
dence its present name, in commemoration of his escape from 
threatened shipwreck. England claimed the Bahamas as an 
